1. Elective pregnancy termination in a large cohort of women with hyperemesis gravidarum
- Author
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Poursharif, Borzouyeh, Korst, Lisa M., MacGibbon, Kimber W., Fejzo, Marlena S., Romero, Roberto, and Goodwin, T. Murphy
- Subjects
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GASTROINTESTINAL diseases , *SURVEYS , *MEDICAL care , *PUBLIC health - Abstract
Abstract: Background: This study was conducted to describe characteristics of women who terminated their pregnancies secondary to hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). Study Design: Data were obtained from a survey provided on an HG Web site from 2003 to 2005. Results: Of 808 women who completed the survey, 123 (15.2%) had at least one termination due to HG, and 49 (6.1%) had multiple terminations. Prominent reasons given for the terminations were inability to care for the family and self (66.7%), fear that they or their baby could die (51.2%), or that the baby would be abnormal (22.0%). These same women were three times as likely to state that their health care providers were uncaring or did not understand how sick they were [64/123 (52.0%) vs. 168/685 (24.5%), odds ratio 3.34 (95% CI 2.21–5.05), p<.001]. Conclusion: These data suggest that the physical and psychological burden of HG has been underestimated, and that further education within the medical community may be warranted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2007
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